The latest articles on DEV Community by Alok Pandey (@wildoctopus). https://dev.to/wildoctopus https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4059396%2F4ea47de1-ec76-40bb-a8a0-186a67722917.jpg https://dev.to/wildoctopus en Alok Pandey Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:49:37 +0000 https://dev.to/wildoctopus/deep-learning-training-playbook-turning-research-papers-into-engineering-decisions-3k9d https://dev.to/wildoctopus/deep-learning-training-playbook-turning-research-papers-into-engineering-decisions-3k9d <p>Deep Learning is evolving faster than ever.</p> <p>Every week we see new techniques:</p> <ul> <li>LoRA</li> <li>QLoRA</li> <li>RAG</li> <li>Foundation Models</li> <li>Mamba</li> <li>Diffusion Models</li> </ul> <p>But one question is still difficult:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Which technique should I choose for my problem?</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>Most resources explain <strong>how</strong> something works.</p> <p>Very few explain:</p> <ul> <li>Why was it created?</li> <li>When should I use it?</li> <li>When should I avoid it?</li> <li>What are the trade-offs?</li> </ul> <p>That is the problem I wanted to solve.</p> <h2> Introducing: Deep Learning Training Playbook </h2> <p>A practical guide to help engineers make better AI decisions.</p> <p>The first part covers:</p> <p>✅ Transfer Learning<br><br> ✅ Foundation Models<br><br> ✅ Full Fine-Tuning<br><br> ✅ LoRA<br><br> ✅ QLoRA<br><br> ✅ Continued Pretraining<br><br> ✅ Knowledge Distillation </p> <p>The goal:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Don't memorize AI techniques. Learn when and why to use them.</strong></p> </blockquote> <h2> Open Source </h2> <p>GitHub:</p> <p><a href="https://github.com/wildoctopus/deep-learning-training-playbook" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/wildoctopus/deep-learning-training-playbook</a></p> <p>More chapters coming:</p> <ul> <li>Model Architectures</li> <li>Generative AI</li> <li>Training Optimization</li> <li>Agentic AI</li> <li>Production AI Systems</li> </ul> <p>Built by <strong>WildOctopus 🐙</strong></p> <p><em>Turning research papers into practical engineering playbooks.</em></p> machinelearning ai opensource deeplearning